Vettel satisfied by DRS-free pass on Ricciardo

2017 Chinese Grand Prix

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Sebastian Vettel said his overtaking move on Daniel Ricciardo was more satisfying because he didn’t use DRS.

The pair exchanged places on lap 22 when Vettel drew alongside the outside of the Red Bull at turn six and held the position, despite the pair touching wheel.

2017 Chinese Grand Prix in pictures
Vettel described it as a “tense” moment but said: “I like this way of overtaking, when gaining position comes at a price and not simply by opening up the DRS.”

The Ferrari driver said he enjoyed a “very exciting race” on his way to second place behind Lewis Hamilton.

“Obviously my target was to catch Lewis and I was stuck in the train and I was getting a bit angry or annoyed and I wanted to get by and I had the feeling that I could go a lot faster in these conditions.”

“So when I was behind Daniel I saw him blocking down the inside because I had a good run out of turn four. I said ‘OK, you have to try it around the outside, brake really late and hard. Fortunately he didn’t lock up. I had him in the mirror, checking, otherwise I have to open immediately before he would make contact.”

“Then on the exit I was a bit compromised, a bit in the dirt, getting a bit of wheel spin, but then I got a bit my elbows out. Yeah, he really squeezed me, but it was good fun and I had the inside for the next corner.”

Vettel got ahead of the other Red Bull when Max Verstappen went off, but wasn’t able to catch Hamilton.

“I tried to chase Lewis down as much as possible but I had the feeling that every time I put a lap in he was able to respond, so I think we were a good match.”

“It could have been a different race but a good recovery and wheel-to-wheel racing.”

2017 Chinese Grand Prix

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    Keith Collantine
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    34 comments on “Vettel satisfied by DRS-free pass on Ricciardo”

    1. It may have taken a lot longer, but it was a lot more satisfying to watch, especially with Ricciardo having a chance to fight back.

      I hope they don’t increase the effect of DRS

    2. Yep, the overtake was spectacular, but if we consider that Ferrari had a 1-1,5 seconds raw pace advantage to Red Bull during the quali, it was sooner or later unavoidable.

      1. Race pace tho, Stop making excuses. Vettel murked him and so did Max.

        1. It was clear to anyone with a pair of eyes that Ricciardo was nursing a car that was under-steering like a cross channel ferry in the first stint on slicks! Once he made his second stop he was clearly much faster. And as mentioned, the Ferrari has a massive pace advantage as well. Not excuses – simply facts!

        2. Wasn’t a clean pass either, seen faster closer passing without wheel banging. Vettel was a little untidy with that one. But in the end in doesn’t matter Ricciardo just did not have the pace.

        3. Fudge Kobayashi (@)
          10th April 2017, 11:46

          AceAce has got the right idea! So many excuses on here seriously… Well done Vettel and Max for completely outclassing their teammates.

      2. Why didn’t Kimi do it then?

        1. Understeer, Kimi has oldschool driving style, that looses tire life faster, especially fronts. On front limited tracks he has no chances against seb.

          1. Bahrain is rear limited and Kimi has always been good there (never won but I think it’s 7 podiums for him there). Looking forward to see what he’s got next week.

        2. He reported power (unit) issues on the radio.

    3. In some occasions like now I think DRS is a bad thing and it kills the moment of the pre overtaking. When I watch youtube in pre-DRS time they could drive 4 lap close to each other and it feels exiting. When do they make the move. The overtaking without DRS is done with more commitment. Locking wheels and braking later is what I want to see. And also, corner exit speed is rewarded more on straights without DRS. Even the overtake of Bottas on Alonso could be more fun to watch. After safety car they run 3 laps or so without DRS and I didn’t even missed it.

      1. DRS was always a problem from the beginning. You don’t see it in WEC or GT races or F3 or Indycar. And look how that turns out=>overtaking and re-overtaking, even closer finishes… I wonder how long it will stay on with Libirty now having something to say…

      2. Indeed. Pretty much anyone with a shred of common sense knows DRS is garbage if you look beyond the surface. We’ve been banging on about this since it was introduced, and finally we have someone near the top that might actually be listening. Let’s keep our fingers crossed.

        1. Some tracks could do without DRS all together but at tracks like Hungary for example you desperately need it I think.

        2. Well lets go back to how it was before DRS was introduced. There were pretty much no overtakes at all during any race. People couldn;t stop complaining about how boring the races were.

          DRS is designed to make an overtake possible. The only situation where DRS fails is when the overtaking car is much faster already and doesn’t need DRS. Especially with the Pirelli tyres we had the previous few years. The overtaking cars is 3 seconds a lap faster (on fresher tyres or on a faster compound) and just breezes by on the straight with it’s rear wing open. The people who really don’t have a shread of common sense blamed DRS for that.

          Now if those “shredless” people watch current F1 and see how it’s again nearly impossible to overtake on a dry track (even with DRS), maybe they realize it was the tyres all along.

    4. Saw somewhere on twitter that there was 54 overtakes in the GP, only 10 of which using DRS. Not bad.

      1. Last year there were 126 overtakes in China (I heard during the race commentary, not sure if correct) I don’t know how many were DRS assisted though.

        But I have to say I like this 2017 style overtaking better than the DRS assisted style of 2009-2016. Quality wheel to wheel racing has been few and far between in that period as drivers were better off just waiting for the DRS straight (in that sence Verstappen’s moves around the outside of Blanchimont and such were brave but also a bit stupid.

        Thank havens that’s now no longer the case. Brave driving is now required to make a pass!

        1. Wasn’t DRS introduced in 2011?

          For me, 2010 was the perfect time for F1 in terms of aero and didn’t need gimmicks like DRS.

        2. You really are “shredless”. What changed between last year and this year? It was even a partially wet race this year (which usually doubles or triples the number of overtakes)

          @AV, DRS sort of started in 2009 with F-duct. Same thing. It just got rally bad from 2011 onwards when Pirelli and Eccleston pushed these fast degrading tyres on F1 to outbid Michelin (because Ecclestone wanted more money and Michelin didn’t want to pay).

    5. Hands down this will be one of the overtake of season don’t know how many we will get i just hope pirelli and FIA wont go to the Degrading Tires any more, we need these sort of tires today they can easily do 1 stop and go to the end on Softs but they pitted because of temp being low in tires thats how it should be instead of Artificial Degradation. This is more natural i hope pirelli understand this and helps the racing by actually keeping this tires instead of their decision of getting 2 stops per race target by introducing more degrading tires, if a race is 1 stop but we got racing like this then no one will ask why they didn’t stopped once more.

      1. Grosjean round the outside of Massa at Turn 1 from a mile back is a contender too.

        1. That was an awesome pass. I don’t understand why Mercedes didn’t take him. Grosjean is a fantastic driver.

          1. Grosjean, Hulkenberg, Perez or even Ocon would have been better choices I think tbh.

        2. that looked so bad for Massa. I know that he had really old tires and the Williams is never good in the wet / cold, but damn was it embarrasing. It was like Massa was in a GP2 car.

    6. This race proved that quality of overtakes is much more important than quantity of overtakes.

      1. OmarRoncal - Go Seb!!! (@)
        9th April 2017, 16:33

        +1

      2. Hans (@hanswesterbeek)
        10th April 2017, 11:39

        + a bazillion.

    7. not bad for a fake champ in the new non-overtaking era huh? ;)

    8. Ferrari, Seb fan
      9th April 2017, 18:41

      Great overtake, a possible contender for best overtake of the year.
      One thing that stood out for me was that not much passes were being made into turn 14, most drivers overtook into turn 6. Shows that these cars can overtake without drs

    9. Quality and hopefully a sign of things to come, where DRS is only used in the lining up to get within striking distance and not the actual pass.

    10. It’s refreshing to see real overtakes again! The drivers are realizing that they will need to find unusual overtaking spots and be braver to overtake someone. Everything is falling into place , less scrutinizing from stewards, more authentic overtakes, it’s good to head back to the right direction. The Vettel move on Ric and Grosjean on Massa were worth more than the 127 overtakes from 2016 combined.

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